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The luck of the Irish wasn’t just luck

Michelle V. Rafter — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:31:18 +0000

The luck of the Irish – a nice saying with implications that good things just happen to some people.

But the Irish weren’t lucky. They were broke. A potato famine cost millions their livelihoods – and many their lives. Scores left their homeland forever to find work and a better life. Once they landed wherever they landed they endured grinding poverty and prejudice. Luck had nothing to do with the lives they built for themselves and the generations of descendant who followed.

So on this day when we honor St. Patrick and everybody’s feeling a little Irish, think about the luck you make for yourself.

Was it luck that you landed a great assignment, the one that will make this year better than last, or the result of years of hard work perfecting what you do?

Was it luck that the editor interviews you flew to New York to do turned out so well, or the result of research on those publications you did beforehand and the preparations you went through on what you were going to say?

Was it luck that your blog traffic is growing bigger every month, or the result of the hard work you’ve been doing to get it there?

Was it luck that when you lost your staff reporter job you didn’t just land on your feet, you created a business, one that let’s you do what you love to do and pay the bills?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – may the luck of the Irish – the luck you make for yourself – be with you always.

The Oscars and writing: Meryl Streep is a good picker, and you can be too

Michelle V. Rafter — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:59:43 +0000

Meryl Street didn’t win an Academy Award for her spot-on portrayal of Julie Child in Julie & Julia. But her performance in the 2009 film marked the 16th time she’s been nominated for the prize.

I’m convinced the reason Streep’s been recognized so many times is because she’s a good picker.

By picker I mean Streep has a good feel for what roles would be right for her, overall and at that particular point in her career. My hunch is she takes into account the script, director, producers backing the picture, amount of time she’ll need to invest in the project, and finally, the money. Whether she’s got a good agent or just a keen sense of what works well for her, it’s made her career.

On Sunday night, Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for her portrayal of a take-charge mom who brought a homeless black teenager into her Southern white family in The Blind Side. Bullock’s a good actress too. Whether she’s on par with Streep is a subject for a different blog post. But Bullock’s been in lots of interesting, if not heavyweight films over the years. She’s also been in a lot of dogs: to wit, she’s the only actress ever to win an Oscar and a Razzie (for All About Steve) in the same year.

It’s taken the actress they call America’s Sweetheart this long to grab the golden statue because she isn’t as good a picker as someone like Streep.

So what does this have to do with writers?

Writers, like Streep, Bullock and other creative types, are only as good as the projects we pick.

Pick a stimulating assignment that pushes you beyond what you thought yourself capable of doing and you wind up improving your writing, your portfolio and your chances of that higher profile publication saying “Yes” the next time you query.

Pick something easy you’ve done over and over again, and you don’t grow.

Pick a publisher that pays peanuts, pays in exposure or can’t or won’t pay at all, and you end up frustrated, and quite possibly, broke.

Figuring out what projects to pursue is something some writers are naturally great at. Others are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Still others have to work long and hard to figure out the process.

If you’re someone who innately knows what projects are right for any particular place and time, hooray for you – I’ve love to hear how you go through that decision-making process.

If you’re not, here are some things to think about the next time an opportunity comes your way or when you’re thinking about which assignment you want to do next. Call them the 5 Ps of Picking a Project:

1. The project – Am I excited to do this? How much time and effort will it take? Does it fit into my writing specialty? Is it an area people are interested in, one that I could make into a new specialty? Do I already have sources I could talk to who know the subject? If not, how easy would it be to find them? Will I have to travel? If so, how much time will it take me away from other projects?

2. The people – Have I worked with the editor or staff before? If so, are they easy to work with or overly demanding, demeaning or rude? Do they make a story better or edit in mistakes? Are they quick to answer emails or phone calls?

3. The publication – Is it a magazine, website, newspaper, company I want to be affiliated with? What kind of reputation do they have? What kind of financial situation are they in: on the way up or down? How do they treat their writers?

4. The pay – Is the compensation worth the number of hours I need to put into the project to do it justice? What rights are involved? Are expenses included? Is it pay on acceptance or publication? If it’s low paying, can I reuse the research and pitch a different story to a different publication? Could it lead to more work or a contract or retainer position?

5. The big picture – How does this fit into my goals for my writing business this year? For my career? Could it lead to more lucrative work? Is it something I’ll be proud of? Can I squeeze this in without sacrificing projects I’m already committed to? How does this fit into my non-work life?

Nobody’s criteria for choosing project is exactly the same. But by going through a well-reasoned thought process you could end up like Meryl Streep, a perennial winner.

Guest post: Up close and personal, writing first-person profiles

Michelle V. Rafter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:00:55 +0000

Today’s post is written by Pat Olsen, a long-time New Jersey freelance writer who specializes in business and health.

When I interviewed professional skateboarder Tony Hawk for The New York Times, he said he loved skateboarding so much he’d do it even if he wasn’t getting paid.

That’s almost the way I feel about writing first-person profiles.

First-person profiles are stories or columns I report as usual but write in first person rather than in third person, as if I’m the person I’m writing about. I write first-person columns for two magazines and am a lead contributor for two in the Times.

It’s challenging trying to capture someone else’s voice, to find a flow in what they’ve said, and perhaps uncover a theme.

Doing first-person profiles isn’t a matter of simply recording what someone says and transcribing it. If that were the case, I might write, “Well, um, let’s see, when I was 10 − no, make that 12 — I delivered newspapers up and down the street. They were pretty heavy.”

You might want to write exactly the way someone speaks if you’re writing a novel, but not if you’re writing a profile. People often speak too casually for these types of pieces. For a profile, I take that stream of consciousness and make it coherent and interesting. It’s not easy, but this type of writing just feels right to me and usually once I’m happy with a piece, others are, too.

If you’re interested in writing first-person profiles, the first thing to do is unlock the stories inside the person you’re writing about. Everyone has stories. The key to finding them is getting the person to talk about the anecdotes, trips, jobs or other events that bring their life into focus.

When I wrote about Peter Wilson’s career change from public relations to teaching, the key to getting him to open up was asking what he missed about his former job. When I wrote about Ray Harris, vice chairman of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, I used his recollection about getting started in the securities industry to tell his story.

Here are a few other tips I’ve picked up after years of practice:

It may take more than one interview to get someone to dig deeper. One of my first editors made me re-interview someone not once but twice to get enough details to be satisfied with what I’d written. Initially I considered it a failure not to “get it right the first time.” Since then, I’ve realized that it takes until the second or third interview for some people to open up. Most top executives are media-savvy: once they read a sample of the type of article they’re being interviewed for they know what to do. But many people who don’t give interviews all the time may not be reflective enough the first time. Drawing their thoughts out of them could take several conversations.

Ask the same question different ways. This technique is old hat to journalists, but still works. If you try it and still aren’t getting what you need, give the person an example of what you’re looking for. If someone’s having trouble coming up with good details of a trip they took, I might say, “In another profile I wrote, the person talked about almost missing his plane because a herd of cows crossing in front of his taxi took forever to reach the other side of the road.” That kind of prompting usually helps.

I always let profiles sit, even if it’s just overnight. I need to read them with a fresh eye to be able to improve them.

First-person profiles are my favorite things to write so on one hand, they’re easy. But that doesn’t mean they’re not hard work.

Good intentions: writing with purpose

Michelle V. Rafter — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:33:59 +0000

Valerie is an instructor at the gym I belong to.

Calling her an instructor is a bit of an understatement.

She’s more like a drill sergeant in a leotard.

Valerie is strong, motivated and incredibly good at what she does. So good people willingly get up at an ungodly hour to make her 5:45 a.m. class. So good, she was recently honored as the 20,000-member club’s instructor of the year.

What makes her so good? She’s a big believer in intention, being in the moment and putting maximum effort into whatever she’s doing right then and there to get the best results. It shows in every crunch and lunge she does in class, in the sweat that pours from her face, and the muscles that grace her frame, the ones everyone who takes her class covet.

In fact, Valerie believes in intention so much she had the word tattooed around her arm.

There are lots of similarities between working out and writing.

In writing, as in exercising, you get out only as much as you put in. Take a half-baked approach to an interview, a story or a rewrite and you end up with dull quotes, a boring read and poorly executed revisions.

But put intention into what you’re doing and you end up improving your writing – and I’d wager your relationship with the publications you work with as well.

You’re going to sit in front of a computer for hours a day writing or editing anyway, why not do it with intention. Come up with a list of the things you need to do that day and focus your energy on executing them, one after the other.

You could be amazed with the results.

New tools for a new writing world

Michelle V. Rafter — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:45:16 +0000

There’s a great quote attributed to motivational speaker Anthony Robbins: if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

This quote reminds me of freelancers who continue to query print consumer magazines then complain when they don’t hear anything. When the print magazine industry’s losing ad pages at an alarming rate, it’s not surprising that editors aren’t buying. So why keep flogging that dead horse?

Online’s the future, and I’m not just talking about writing for content farms. There are all kinds of opportunities with online only-news sites, corporate sites, newsletters, trade publications, e-books, user guides, mobile phone apps and on and on.

Making the most of these opportunities could require retraining. But if you’re in the market to pick up some new skills, you don’t need to look far for opportunities.

One is a free hour-long webinar, Moving to Digital-First Content: How Intelligent Content Technology is Changing Publishing from Scott Abel, of The Content Wrangler fame, on Thursday, March 11 at 2 p.m. ET. Registration is free but you have to sign up in advance.

In the webinar, Abel will lead a discussion with content management specialist Ann Rockley and digital publishing innovator Dev Ganesan.

Here are a couple other journalism training websites that offer free or low-cost classes freelancers can take to pick up skills they need to create content online.

Knowledgewebb – Run by former journalist Amy Webb, this website’s motto is “Don’t sweat the tech. ” Knowledgewebb hosts online and off-line classes, webinars, tutorials and more. Subscriptions are $129 a year or $89 if you belong to the Online News Association or another partner organization.

Knight Digital Media Center - This partnership between journalism schools at UC Berkeley and USC offers multimedia trainings, bootcamps and other workshops at one or the other campus several times a year. Classes are limited to 20 applicants and are free, with costs underwritten by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. Here’s a list of upcoming classes in 2010.

Online News Association – The largest professional association for journalists working online hosts its own annual convention, regional seminars and informal mixers and meetups around the country. The group also maintains a calendar of outside seminars and training opportunities (but you have to be a member to access it). Annual dues are $75 for working journalists.

J-Lab – The Institute for Interactive Journalism helps professional and citizen journalists use digital technologies to to report the news, through training, research and publications. The organization also provides grants to new media projects, and will award a total of $25,000 to nine such ventures this year – but hurry if this is something you’re interested in, the deadline is March 1. J-Lab and the McCormick Foundation also run a separate grant program to fund women-run new media ventures; that deadline is April 12.

Poynter’s News University – Nicknamed News U., this online journalism training program offers 150 free or low-cost classes. The e-learning project of the nonprofit Poynter Institute has more than 150,000 registered users and currently offers courses such as Mobile Media 101: Producing News with Your Smartphone (March 3) and Becoming a more Effective Editor: Strategies for Editing Yourself, Others (March 2010).

Know of other places – online or off – where writers of all stripes can get training? Let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Going for the gold: how to train like an Olympian

Michelle V. Rafter — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:35:05 +0000

If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent at least part of the last five days watching the 2010 Winter Olympics and wondering how it’s possible for the human body to spin, flip, fly or move so fast.

Olympic athletes aren’t born doing those things. With the rare exception, it takes years, maybe even decades, to reach that level of achievement – something spectators like you and me understand almost intuitively.

Yet when it comes to our work as writers, we expect to come out of the gate a Nicholas Kristoff or Seymour Hersh.

But writing, like sports, doesn’t work that way. To attain a certain level of mastery takes time and effort. While it might not take the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell says it does in Outliers, it’s not something you can start out at and be perfect right away (unless you’re a J.D. Salinger, and face it, we’re not).

Good writing takes hard work. To be an Olympic caliber writer takes Olympic caliber training.

So how do you train like a gold-medal champion?

Specialize. You don’t see Apollo Anton Ohno competing in short-track speed skating and figure skating. Ohno’s a champion because he’s devoted umpteen years of his life to one thing and one thing only, and that devotion’s made him the most decorated American Winter Olympian ever. To get good at something specialize. If you want to be a business reporter, pitch and take assignments to write business stories. If you want to be a copywriter, actively seek out copywriting opportunities. Ditto for any other niche writing market.

Find a coach. Watch the Olympic figure skaters before and after they enter the rink. There’s always a coach there to encourage them before they’re on and critique them once they’re done. Writers need coaches too. You could hire a coach, but you don’t have to. Coaching could come from attending a writer’s workshop, reading books on the craft, or putting some really good writing blogs on your RSS reader (including this one, hopefully).

Practice. Olympic athletes are in the spotlight once every four years, but they practice constantly. Practice is what allows U.S. snowboard superpipe champ Shaun White to do tricks like the Double McTwist 1260, which he invented and so far has been the only rider to have landed successfully. Thankfully, practicing writing is a little easier than doing double flipping, triple twisting maneuvers on a snowboard – although getting a reluctant interviewee to open up sometimes feels like it. The best practice for writers is writing. If assignments aren’t pouring in, aim your writing energies at query letters, keeping a journal, blogging or taking a writing class – anything that helps sharpen your skills.

Use the right equipment. Bode Miller didn’t win a bronze medal in the downhill on any old pair of skis. He used the right equipment and tuned it to the conditions on the mountain that day. To get the most out of their work, writers need equipment that’s tuned to their special needs too: a laptop that has enough umph to be a main workstation yet is light enough to take on the road, a telephone headset and Skype, a smartphone with a built-in camera, software for making podcasts.

Surround yourself with like-minded professionals. Skiers on the World Cup circuit travel, train and live together – U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn’s chief nemesis on the World Cup circuit is also her best friend, Germany’s Maria Riesch. This is a hard one for me, because it’s against my naturally competitive nature to want to share too much with writers who could potentially take work away from me. But the reality is, there’s no way I could write all the stories there are to write about topics I cover. So why not accept that and spread the wealth? And good karma has a way of finding its way back to you.

Visualize greatness. Olympic athletes train mentally as well as physically, picturing themselves performing at their peak. When I was 15 my parents sent me to a weekend seminar led by a local high-school football coach whose specialty was teaching athletes how to visual success. Over two days we learned what affirmations were and how to use positive mental imagery to picture ourselves doing whatever it was we wanted to do. Sounds hokey but it works, especially the visualization. I’ve continued to use some of the techniques up to this day. If you think of yourself as a successfully employed freelance writer, you will be. That doesn’t mean that all you have to do is think about it. You have to do the things that will make you successful – the querying, the interviews, the writing, the rewriting. But by picturing yourself as successful you won’t be mentally sabotaging everything else you’re doing to get there. And when you’ve got that big interview or have a call with an editor at your dream magazine you’ll be calm, cool and collected because you’ve been there before, in your head.

* * *

If the Olympics inspire you, you might want to check out the Pen Olympics now going on at Edittorent, another blog for writers. There’s a new competition every day – Monday’s was Doggerel Sled Racing.

WordCountWriting

The luck of the Irish wasn’t just luck

Recommended reading for March 12, 2010 – National Magazine Awards finalists

The Oscars and writing: Meryl Streep is a good picker, and you can be too

Guest post: Up close and personal, writing first-person profiles

Recommended reading for March 5, 2010

Good intentions: writing with purpose

Recommended reading for Feb. 27, 2010

New tools for a new writing world

Recommended reading for Feb. 19, 2010

Going for the gold: how to train like an Olympian